Draft:Rose Bernadette Rebienot Owansango

Rose Bernadette Rebienot Owansango was a traditional medicine practitioner from Gabon. She was also a master and a priestess of several traditionnal initiatic rites. Among the elder of the Mpongwe community, her high grade allowed her to exert various responsibilities of spiritual and temporal power.

She was the president and founder of the association Village Oyenano, located in Libreville and which works for the development of traditional medicine and the preservation of cultural heritage.

She has been the president of the Union of Traditional Medicine Practitioners from Gabon (U.T.S.G) since 1994.

She was a member of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers established in 2004.

Spiritual and Traditionnal Path
Although having received a Catholic education, Rose Bernadette was confronted with traditional African medicine at a very young age. Born blind, modern medicine does not diagnose any anomaly and can do nothing for her. Her family took her to see a traditional healer, and she could regain her sight. As a teenager, she suffered from incurable pain in her feet. Then, when she is just a very young mother, unexplained headaches and tinnitus make her unable to work and force her to stay in the darkness of her room. Finding no effective solution to relieve these various ailments, she despaired and turned to traditional medicine. Through encounters, she was directed to the traditions of her family line and, through various initiations, will manage to heal.

She was initiated into the traditional Ndjembè rite in July 1948 at the age of 14. In July 1958, she ascended to the supreme grade of Ngwèvilo (priestess).

Subsequently, she was introduced to the Bwiti Dissumba rite with iboga and then to Abanji, which opened the doors to her career as a traditional healer on a national and international scale.

Her growing reputation helped her work for a better knowledge of the use of iboga and for an enhancement of the place of women in society.

The Village Oyenano
Having become a priestess and initiatory master in the various aforementioned rites, the one called Grandmother Bernadette, created the Village Oyenano association, a cultural space located in Libreville, intended for the practice of her traditional medicine activities, where she received patients from all over the world until the end of his life. In the Myene language, the word Oyenano means: “reunion”. The name of the village therefore symbolizes the unifying character that predominated in Grand-Mère Bernadette's therapeutic approach. She saw her role as that of a bridge between two shores, linking the visible and invisible worlds, the different cultures, and above all human beings with themselves.

Within the associative framework of the Village Oyenano, she participated in more than one way in many events of traditional medicine and all the cultural values ​​related to it. The village regularly hosted various community life events such as initiations into the Gabonese female rite, the Ndjembè, taking place every summer.

The Village Oyenano also hosted the last gathering of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers in July 2015 as well as the World Days for Cultural Diversity in May 2017, each time under the aegis of UNESCO.

The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers
In 2001, an American woman named Dayna Wicks went to Grandmother Bernadette for treatment, accompanied by her companion and her mother-in-law Jyoti Ma. During Dayna's initiation into bwiti dissumba, Jyoti confided to Bernadette that she had recurring visions of several people gathered in prayer around a fire. They were grandmothers who insisted on bringing together certain women elders holders of traditional wisdom and transmitting to the world and to new generations a message of peace and ecology.

Grandmother Bernadette encouraged her to listen to this sign and to put everything in place to achieve this meeting.

Following this trip, Dayna and Jyoti went in search of those who were to form the future circle. They brought together thirteen women from various continents, guardians of sacred knowledge related to ecology, health and spirituality.

The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers was born. It was held for the first time in October 2004 in New York State in the presence of the Dalai Lama. Grandmother Bernadette was the only African representative.

The gatherings that followed were organized successively in the countries of origin of each of the thirteen members.

The last meeting was held at Village Oyenano, at Grandmother Bernadette's, and resulted in the production of a film entitled Le Dernier Conseil by Jean-Claude Cheyssial.

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Heritage
After the death of Grandmother Bernadette in January 2021, the Village Oyenano association that she created continues to work for the preservation of her spiritual heritage and her healing methods. The banja (temple) that she set up there is still alive and open to everyone. This sacred place retains its usual activity, patients are welcomed and cared for there according to the same skilfully proven protocol. Beyond her therapeutic and initiatory knowledge, the heritage transmitted by Grandmother Bernadette remains above all, a message of peace and love. Through numerous conferences and publications, she has made every effort to disseminate it to as many people as possible, constantly taking care to bring people together.

She has always advocated cultural balance as a prerequisite for social balance. Her fight for the preservation of traditional values ​​remains very present throughout Gabon and even beyond.

In 2020, she informed the United Nations in Gabon of her wish to organize a march for peace and cultural diversity, according to the tradition of the original communities of Libreville. This march called Évandanganié had not taken place for many years.

Her last public message was on the topic of transmission and was posted on social media just days before her death.

Mother of 10 biological children, she left behind countless grandchildren, great-grandchildren and spiritual children scattered all over the world, as a gift of her knowledge transmitted to future generations.

Filmography

 * Secrets de femmes de Jean-Claude Cheyssial (1999)


 * L'esprit de l'Ayahuasca de Jean-Claude Cheyssial (2002)
 * La Guérisseuse de la forêt de Jean-Claude Cheyssial (2005)
 * For the next 7th Generations de Bruce Hart et Carol Hart (2009)


 * Le Dernier Conseil de Jean-Claude Cheyssial (2016)